A good title leads to fantastic results

A catchy headline makes or breaks the success of any article. People often start by writing a sort of topic and then use that as the headline. The chance of that triggering people’s interest? Zero. There’s a psychological aspect to all this, because a good headline prompts people to take action. If you know what to look out for, you can boost the success of your articles.

Standing out in all that media

The article 'Want a catchy title? Use these 200 powerful words' on Frankwatching caught our attention. It contains 200 words that can help you make your article’s title more impactful. After all, the title is the first thing people see when they come across your article. People scan titles, and the ones that stand out get the clicks. You’ll find articles:

• on your own website,
• in your newsletter,
• on your followers’ personal timelines on social media,
• on your social media channels,
• in Google’s search results.

So there are many places where people come across your articles. A good title piques people’s curiosity, and that means the effort you put into writing an article pays off.

People scan headlines

There’s so much information on the internet that you can’t see the wood for the trees. What you end up doing is skimming the headlines. Good images and eye-catching titles pique your curiosity. If someone decides to click on an article, they’re still in ‘scan’ mode. People read the first two lines of the introduction (the first paragraph). If that’s satisfactory, they’ll scan the article for subheadings. If the subheading also matches what they’re looking for, they’ll read the relevant paragraph. 

'People don’t read texts …'

We often hear from clients that people don’t read on a website. They certainly do read, just not in the same way as you read a book. The behaviour is very different, so you need to adapt accordingly. A web text requires a good structure, with the content written with the aim of persuading people. You won’t win the battle with over-optimised SEO content, because people see right through it. Search engines do too these days, as they’re getting increasingly good at ‘seeing’ whether a piece of content is aimed at informing people or purely at improving rankings. Write content for people!

These 200 words will help you create catchy headlines. So be sure to spend extra time crafting the right headline. The same applies to subheadings. For SEO purposes, it’s important to include a key keyword in the title. Complement this with a powerful word and try to pique people’s curiosity, keeping someone from your target audience in mind. Would you like us to help you with this? Please feel free to get in touch!